Almost
pre-history in fact – i.e. even
before As Was When!
Making
collages, Paolozzi was limbering up for his fabulous Sixties graphics series in
the preceding decade. Between these and ‘As Is When’ there were a few works of
special significance since they ‘practised’ that series’ very particular
format, style and content.
‘The History of Nothing’ was a short (12
mins) black & white film made by Paolozzi with the help of Denis
Postle. Inspired by Dada/Surrealist
ideas, it consisted of an animated series of collages. In anticipation of concepts for a new kind of
interactive fine art which would fully emerge at the end of the decade, it is
likely that Paolozzi hoped that by bombarding the viewer with unrelated images
a new, self-contained perception of reality would be engendered. This would be based on the notion that the
human brain when presented with images without visually- or linguistically-indicated
logical relationships will by default ‘invent’ connecting links intuitively.
© TheTrustees of the Eduardo Paolozzi Foundation
I
believe that Paolozzi intended to ramp-up stimulation of our (the viewer)
creative perception by confusing us with both the print’s title and the presentation
of the component images. With the word ‘history’ it is natural to think of
information conveyed in a linear, progressive format, (often a ‘chronology’ or
‘timeline’). Paolozzi’s style in overall
picture composition and the juxtaposition of component elements denies such a
perception.
Here,
as in so many of the Sixties graphic works, images of machinery/technology
feature prominently. At that time the
range and capability of technology was expanding at an unprecedented rate of
progress, especially because of the invention of electronics. Equally some more familiar technologies –
from the Industrial Revolution for instance – had, by virtue of their relative
simplicity and size, become ‘quaint’ and ‘olde-worlde’, (‘historic’). But the functionality of contemporary, more
‘hi-tech’ machines and devices would revolutionise the potential for image
manipulation; I guess that Paolozzi fully foresaw how computers would enable an
artist to create imagery with a freedom and sophistication that was impossible
at that mid-century point for him with his meagre ‘tool kit’ of hard-copy
print source material, knife, scissors and adhesives.
From
a 2017 viewpoint potential referencing is intriguing. For instance, is that Schrödinger’s cat? (age
27: not bad for a Felis catus) – you know, the one that inhabits the box in the
service of quantum mechanics theory? – a discipline that will not reach general
‘popular’ awareness until the end of the 20th century; and what of
coal mining, the basis for a technology that is seen as a major contributor to
global-warming, a phenomenon which threatens to spell the end of history?
The
magazine wrapper fragments provide a wry comment on the value of
information. Here packaging is the
visual device used, with no sign of what would have been physically within,
what should surely have been the object of interest, i.e. the magazine itself,
and, in a further non-apparent layer, the informational content of the
magazine. In this way Paolozzi seems to
have been practising the way of thinking with ‘pictures’ as would be a concern
of As Is When, as well as rehearsing
that series’ characteristic visual devices and their rendering.
Purely
visually, this print looks to me to be a close relative of: Artificial Sun and Reality (As Is When); Protocol
Sentences (Universal Electronic Vacuum); King Kong King Kong (Moonstrips Empire News) and The ABC of Z (General Dynamic Fun).
